Counter- propaganda and Citizen Journalism since 2014

In the opening paragraphs, in Insider magazine today, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce say:

‘As with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’ssuccessful recent trip, the primary job of any Scots mission to China, private or public sector-led is simple: To hammer home that Scotland has a distinct and alluring commercial proposition, and move it up from being 14th in Scotland’s list of export destinations.’

Note their easy recognition of the success of the trip. Remember the SCC has been no friend of the SNP in the past. In the Scotsman of 7th May 2014:

‘Almost one in five businesses are either intending to or considering leaving Scotland if there is a Yes vote in the independence referendum, a survey has suggested. Research for the Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) found that 8 per cent of firms had definite plans to move away from Scotland if it voted to leave the UK, while a further 10 per cent said they were considering moving away if this was the case.’

So, I think, even BBC Scotland might have to recognise that the SCC assessment of the trip as being successful, was non-partisan.

Most of you will already know that BBC Scotland and much of the mainstream media have been ignoring the trip and concentrating on the cost of refurbishing Nicola’s official pad and her alleged favouring of a Chinese contractor in a planning application for a power station in East Lothian.

Bias by omission is notoriously difficult to prove but to completely ignore the First Minister’s trip to the world’s biggest economy, China, takes some doing when you have no other story of comparable significant to replace it with. See the above screen grab for a look at the competing stories today.

Footnote: I too was locked in a cupboard by a teacher. Art teacher, Victoria Buttberg, locked me and one other in the walk-in Art cupboard in Grangemouth High School (c) 1968/69. She had a visitor and didn’t want the only two boys in the class offending their sensibilities by drawing people getting shot, as we did then. We found the books with nudes and came out confirmed admirers of the Rubenesque.